Though they were originally called Kaspir, the group members decided to change the band’s name for a Supernova show on September 28, 1996, which happened to be the 41st day of their summer vacation. The band released their debut record as Sum 41 called Half Hour of Power in 2000. They followed it with the breakout sophomore record All Killer No Filler in 2001 and it contained several charting songs such as “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep.”

Though it was received with mixed reviews, their 2007 album Underclass Hero became the highest grossing album of the band to date. It was then followed by Screaming Bloody Murder in 2011 and 13 Voices in 2016. Both these records were acclaimed by all audiences but didn’t reach the commercial success as their predecessors.

Sum 41 occasionally played as an alter-ego 1980s heavy metal band called Pain for Pleasure during shows.

It is also hypothesized by many fans that the band’s name comes from the fact that if you take the word “fuck” and add all its letters (“F” being the 6th letter of the alphabet, “U” being number 21, etc) you get 41.